Some reasons why that would make sense: He's a native of the Boston area. The Bloomberg wire reportedly broke the news of sale, which might indicate that Bloomberg was approached as a potential buyer before the New York Times Company, the Globe's current owner, announced it publicly. The Times Company hired Evercore to advise on the sale, and Evercore is the same firm that McGraw Hill used to sell Businessweek to Bloomberg. Finally, suppose that at least some members of the Times extended family want to diversify their assets into more lucrative investments by eventually selling not just the Globe but the Times itself. Mr. Bloomberg is one of the few buyers out there who is both deep-pocketed and ideologically acceptable. Seeing how Bloomberg does with the Globe would be a kind of trial run; if he doesn't embarrass himself, a sale of the Times could come three years down the road.

Some reasons why that would not make sense: Mr. Bloomberg's ties to the Boston area are weaker since the death in 2011 of his mother, who lived in Medford. If Mr. Bloomberg were approached by Evercore and were actually interested, he would just buy the thing rather than going public with a news article and potentially alerting other interested buyers. Bloomberg is a financial news and information company, not a general interest one, and if it is going to buy a newspaper, the Financial Times would be a better fit. Finally, while Mr. Bloomberg might be interested in someday buying the New York Times, he has a big enough ego that he'd find the idea of a Boston Globe test to be insulting, beneath him.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free smartertimes.com mailing list